Rebecca Riley wants to be an astronautRebecca Riley remembers feeling drawn to the stars since she was less than three years old, when she — and this is her first memory — would go outside with her grandparents in Clay County, Alabama and lay on a blanket and watch the night sky.
“We were far away from any cities,” she says. “The sky...

New UCI astronomy professor constructs tool to spot distant exoplanetsCome July 1, Stephanie Sallum will become a new assistant professor of astronomy in the Physics and Astronomy Department. She comes to UCI from her postdoctoral position at UC
Santa Cruz with plans to capture, along with a team of other researchers, direct images of
exoplanets that are still...

Virginia Trimble is a Legacy FellowIn February, Virginia Trimble, an astronomer in the UCI Department of Physics and Astronomy, became a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). This is the first time in its 121-year history that the AAS has given fellowships of any kind to its members, and, through its Legacy...

Three Academic Senate Awards for Physical Sciences ProfessorsOn February 19, Professors Eric Rignot, Timothy Tait and Jenny Yang all received 2019-2020 Distinguished Faculty Awards from the UCI Academic Senate during an evening ceremony at the Newkirk Alumni Center. The professors swept the Senates’ research awards categories; Professor Rignot received the...